Are your skid plate steel Wes? The later model ones are a thin plastic with air bubbles, not much between your engine and tranny and the road. An I believe we are a bit lower in these Golf's than the Jetta's and the Passat's.
Glad to hear about the Yoko's, may need to look at them.

Standard plastic with the square air bubbles. I don't know the exact difference in height between old and new and the different models. For regular street driving I haven't had an issue with stuff in the road except for other cars . I've had it on a few dirt roads but if you regularly travel those then I can see it being a good upgrade.

Yeah.. I really like the IG20's but I only run them for 4-5 mos max. I could get 4 snow seasons out of them that way. the last 2 sets i bought used... Still, I could keep up with almost every suburau in the snow . I could pass the majority of the SUV's since they didn't run snow tires. Last set I had I left em on because i thought they were worn out but I drove them the whole summer. I could have got another winter from them. lol.

__________________See you on the trailWØREKCouple o' FJ40's, BJ70, UZJ100, TDI66FJ40,82FJ60,97FZJ80TLCA#4180

Sorry VW content, 44.7 average mpg after 2000 miles of driving. 2.0L turbo diesel, 4 door, heated seats. 0% interest loan. Fastest car I've owned. Tried to buy a Prius, but I can't see out the back window and it was just too "space ship" in the drivers seat. Liked the Prius C, and would have gone for one of those if the rear seats had the ski pass through. Couldn't get past how ugly the Matrix was and milage wasn't great. Toyota, are you listening?

I wonder if I could get the engine from one of those to fit in my Tacoma?...

Hey with winter already where you are at, have you seen the trick for warming up faster in winter? If not, take the copper pipe wrap(to help prevent freezing) at home depot or lowes for 1/2" pipe and cut to fit in the lower front grill, I tie wrap them on. I have done this for the last 2 winter with no problems or over heating on warm days. It helps warm up the radiator considerably quicker on cold days to help blow warm air. But I love the heated seats and the electric heater in the vent to help warm the windshield on those cold days.
I may need to explain more, by using the wrap, over the cross bars, it will close off the space between the fins, thus it will close off the cold air going over the radiator, keep it cool longer on cold days.